This week has shown incredible investment into the mining side of the Bitcoin network. The network was last noted to have a mining capacity of 234 TH/s.

Upon review of the Bitcoin network capacity today, it appears that the network has increased by 147% in one week.

The current mining capacity of the network stands at a whopping 371 TH/s. This means a significant number of ASIC miners have come online in the past week.

Will these miners continue to remain profitable over these significant increases in network capacity?

Remember, as the network capacity increases, so does the difficulty in mining or generating the Bitcoins themselves.

To further clarify this concern, lets look at the weekly price of Bitcoin. Currently, the price is hovering around $103-104. If we review the weekly pricing chart, there were some indications that Bitcoin was continuing to drive upwards past $110 mark. However, the price has softened somewhat.

This week continues to prove the significant interest and investment into the Bitcoin economy as a whole.

Based on a quick napkin calculation, the 371 TH/S at approximately $250/GH Estimated Average (GPU/FPCA/ASIC) yields a mining investment of $92.75 M in mining equipment throughout the world.

Current estimates with a network capacity increase driving approximately 60%-75% per month will make it extremely difficult to profit for the average Bitcoin miner investing in mining equipment.

Visit http://mining.thegenesisblock.com/ to view the profitability of the current and future ASIC mining hardware. This calculator is not completely accurate but provides a realistic or even slightly pessimistic view of mining profitability based on the most recent Bitcoin network mining capacity increase.